


Lore

by Asriel



Category: K-pop, VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Blood, Blood and Injury, Dark, Demonic Possession, Gen, Ghosts, Horror, Humans, M/M, Madness, Multi, Mystery, Other, Psychological Horror, SpookyVIXX, SpookyVIXX October, Supernatural Elements, Thriller, Torture, Vampire Bites, Violence, no beta we die like in dark souls game
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:20:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26759353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asriel/pseuds/Asriel
Summary: HEYO!! It's October folks! I decided to participate in the SpookyVIXX October from @crazyjane13 on twitter because I love horror, terror, spooky things that makes you shiver (uuuh...!).I'll update once a day (Crossed fingers here!!!)From ghost encountering to supernatural creatures we got you.Tags and relationships will be updated at each chapter and at start of every single one of them there's the trigger warning.
Relationships: Cha Hakyeon | N/Jung Taekwoon | Leo, Han Sanghyuk | Hyuk/Lee Hongbin, Jung Taekwoon | Leo/Kim Wonshik | Ravi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Buried Deep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 1 - prompt: Shadows/ "It's always here. Always."

_The long humans stay in one place, the more progress we seem to create._

_But at the same time, we bring our darkness with us,_

_and over time it begins to stain with shadows of pain and tragedy._

_And the older the city, the darker the mark._

♰♰♰♰

It was typhoon season in that year, and it was when the greatest natural disaster struck the southern region of the Peninsula. There were floods and many died while others disappeared without a trace when one of the storms caused by the typhoon crashed over small villages near the mountain slopes in the region. An entire village disappeared overnight. Entire families disappeared.

They say that people always remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard very impactful news. It wasn’t different for Sanghyuk. Three years have passed since the tragedy, but he remembers it as if it were yesterday, with all possible details. He was at Hongbin's house, precisely because of the heavy rain that had fallen the night before, hoping that the electricity wouldn’t fall due to rain when he heard his cell phone ringing insistently. Sanghyuk was a police officer barely out of the academy and a rookie at the local police station. _Boring work_ , he would say, after all, rural cities at the end of the world didn’t offer any chance of promotion.

That exactly why it was rare to him to be called at dawn. The first two times, he let the phone ring. But when he heard Hongbin cursing and ordering him to answer the damn call, he decided to answer it. He had slept little that night, it was not yet dawn, and Sanghyuk got up, walked to the kitchen and answered the phone.

On the other end of the line, he heard the lieutenant's familiar voice, asking why Sanghyuk hadn't answered the phone. Before Sanghyuk could reply, he started to speak but Sanghyuk couldn't quite understand. The call was awful, with some static and tone so low that he couldn't understand perfectly. He knew it was about some disaster in the city. Then, the call dropped, without Hyuk being able to comprehend what disaster was.

The lieutenant called again and this time Hyuk could clearly understand: The storm had caused landslides and floods in several places, leaving dead people. It was there that Sanghyuk became aware of the seriousness of what had happened.

He ran to the window and realized that it wasn’t possible to see the street or sidewalks. The river had overflowed. And the village that coloured the mountain in the distance, seemed to disappear in the middle of the large drops of rain against the window without any lights on. It seemed to have been swallowed by the darkness of the night. He returned to the bedroom with his heart racing and put on a decent outfit leaving a Hongbin muttering something and talking about having respect for his sleep beside some curses.

Luckily, Hongbin didn’t live far from the police station and he walked even with water hitting his knee while on the way he had an idea of the chaos that the rain had caused when he saw a bit of everything in the middle of the flood.

Upon arriving at the police station, he saw a movement of people. It seemed that Sanghyuk had been the last to know about it. Entering the building, he looked for the lieutenant as people moved around and found him in a small room. The death toll in the city was at 20 when Hyuk arrived. Two minutes later, it had already risen to 23. And, before Sanghyuk could speak to the lieutenant, the number had reached 25.

He had a pale face and looked bewildered. Just like everyone else in the room. Initially, he hadn’t seen Sanghyuk because he was mesmerized by the red pins that had quickly multiplied on the city map. They marked the number of victims and the places where they had died.

It was the first time that Hyuk saw him cry and from there he seemed to gain an extraordinary strength to deal with the tragedy. The death toll in the city was exactly 50 people. Sanghyuk himself saw it, personally helped to remove bodies from underground and rubble.

Help came from everyone and from many different places, as well as money that ran freely to rebuild and clean up affected cities. All this lasted for a month and then, when it wasn’t longer possible to use the tragedy as a newsstand for newspapers even in the busy capital, the city returned to normal.

It didn't take long for the city to be the focus of the press's attention again. Days later, the prosecution realized that some of the bodies had strangely not been killed because of tragedy, they exhibited marks of torture and violence that would hardly be caused by landslides. Those are people who had a piece of land in the village that now didn’t belong to anyone, who months before received a purchase proposal from someone wealthy in Seoul. This one had the help of some of the policemen there. The lieutenant was one of those investigated.

Outraged, he met at the police station with the small group of police officers there. He needed to clear his name, which had been thrown in the mud because of jerks in the capital who just wanted to win spotlight and promotion. At one point, Hyuk wondered how far that story was true. The lieutenant seemed to be enraged by the question, and he looked at Hyuk cynically and with a frankness that scared him, replied that they were people who should have accepted the proposal to have a better life otherwise they wouldn’t have died because of a flood and what if he received something to convince these people and went too far?

Hyuk was silent. He desired to take what he just heard directly to the regional, but he tried to control himself. He left the meeting when finished and felt an accomplice in knowing that the charges were indeed true. The next day, he claimed that he needed to solve some problems and would need to take a one-leave week. At the end of this week, he decided to resign. When the lieutenant asked him about the resignation letter, he said he needed to solve some personal problems and just turned to leave the room without looking back.

After that, they never spoke again. Over the months, the investigation turned a cold case, Hyuk moved to Seoul with Hongbin who had received an excellent job offer while Hyuk decided to start the police career there again.

Then, one day, suddenly, the lieutenant called Hyuk.

He was awkward. He spoke disconnected things. He said he needed help, that he was being chased and he was scared, very scared. The call dropped, without Hyuk being able to understand what hell was going on.

Two hours later, he called Hyuk again. He was whispering. Hyuk realized that the lieutenant was crying.

“Please help me...”, was the plea of a person in despair. “They want to catch me, They’re here inside my house.”

He was out of breath, but he had the strength to shout at someone who appeared to be beside him. “My God, please stop it!”

Then the call went down again. He didn't call again. Hyuk either, he couldn’t manage to call back.

He didn't know what to do. It was late at night. He knew that the ex-lieutenant now – he left his job too after a few months - lived alone in a house away from the small town. Hyuk lived in the capital, hours away from that cursed place. He then decided to call the police and tell him about the call he’d received. It looked like someone had broken into the lieutenant's house and was threatening his life. “ _Please stop it_ ”, Hyuk heard him scream before the call went down. The police promised to send a patrol to the scene.

Later, he called the police again and spoke to the officer, who had already returned to the station. He knew the new sergeant who led the patrol sent to the scene. He said they found no one in the house except the ex-lieutenant and there no signs of burglary. They realized only that the house was completely dark, without electricity.

The police officers reported that hey knocked on the door and the ex-lieutenant shouted from inside, asking them to leave. When they said they were from the police, they heard hurried footsteps inside the house and the ex-lieutenant opened the door. He had dark circles under his eyes, messy hair and torn clothes.

The sergeant said that the ex-lieutenant looked disoriented and said things about shadows moving around the house. The police asked if he had taken any medication. He said that the shadows wanted to catch him, that they wanted to kill him. According to the sergeant, a search was made and nothing was found, other than a few books and pieces of decoration fallen by some places in the house. Then they left.

That reassured Hyuk and he went to sleep.

♰♰♰♰

Two days later, the phone rang again. It was already dawn. He was very sleepy, and when he picked up his cell phone, Hyuk dropped it on the floor. He cursed and reached for it, unable to open his eyes.

“Hello!”

“My God, they’re surrounding me! They’re surrounding me. They’ll kill me!”

The ex-lieutenant was, once again, terrified, talking about people chasing him.

“Easy ... Ea- ...”

Hyuk heard a scream again in despair, interrupting him and almost scaring Hyuk to death.

“Sir... Are you okay?”

“They’re inside my house! Inside my home!”

“Are you home alone?”

“No, damn it. They’re here! What should I do?”

“I'm asking if your kids are there. Any employees in the house?”, Hyuk tries to keep himself calm, at the same time trying to not make the lieutenant even more nervous.

“No, they all left .... That's why these bastards are here! Oh my God!”, He shouted again. “They’re here in the room. They are here in my room.”

The call went down. Concerned, Hyuk tried to return the call several times, always finding the ex-lieutenant’s phone disconnected or without service. Hyuk then called the cell number of the sergeant who had checked the ex-lieutenant's house the first time. The policeman said he was concerned, not with Hyuk friend's safety, but with his mental health. The sergeant though the ex-lieutenant needed some psychological support. He didn't seem to be normal.

Hyuk asked if the police could go to the site just one more time, to check that everything was fine. The Sargent said it should be nothing. Hyuk asked him to go there just one more time as a favour. It could be someone wanting to scare the ex-lieutenant, with the whole story of years ago.

The policeman snorted dissatisfied and said that just like the first time, he hadn’t seen signs of the presence of other people except for the few things out of place, inside the house, were probably messed up by the owner himself. But in the end, he replied that he would go there even if it was to just to reassure Hyuk.

Hyuk thanked him and asked to call him back as soon as possible.

He went back to bed but was unable to fall asleep. Hongbin had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room and seemed too exhausted those days for any nighttime game. Grumbling between dream and reality, he noticed the other worried about something and just moved his legs a little so that Hyuk could sit there with him.

"The ex-lieutenant again?"

“Hm....”

"Maybe it's just guilt coming after him," Hongbin grunted sleepily. “Guilt will always be a shadow looking for justice in one way or another.”

The phone rang about three hours later. I had taken a brief nap, which was interrupted by the touch.

“Hello.”

“We went there.” it was the police sergeant and he looked worried. It made Hyuk nervous.”

“What happened? Is everything okay with the lieutenant?”

“Just like the first time, we saw no sign of a break-in. We didn't even see anyone in the house. But when we arrived, the door was open, wide open. There were also several things out of place.”

“And the lieutenant? Is everything okay with him?”

“Everything was dark. Once again, the house was without power. The old man was in a corner, behind the chair. He kept talking quietly: “Go away. Go away". And he had superficial wounds on his arms and face. They looked like scratches. It was also a little muddy,” said the policeman. "His hands and nails were also smeared with blood and dirt. I don't know if he got hurt himself or if someone tried to hurt him.”

Hyuk was silent while the police continued the report.

“Look, your friend clearly isn’t well. He’s in shock and needs the help of a professional, some psychologist. But I also need to tell you something else.“ The sergeant looked puzzled.

“What's it?”

“There’re footprints around the house. Muddy footprints everywhere. The feet were in different sizes. Someone definitely was there with him. When we put him sitting in the armchair, he talked about shadows invading his house, about decaying bodies approaching him and trying to kill him.”

“My God.”

“I really think someone might be trying to scare him. I don't think they’re muggers or someone wanting to kill him, otherwise, he would already be dead or seriously injured. I think it's just someone wanting to make him afraid. And I must say that, whoever is responsible, it is succeeding. The ex-lieutenant is going crazy.”

The policeman then said that he had already taken the ex-lieutenant to the hospital. He would be under observation, under medical care until at least the next day. A patrol would be deployed at the house to prevent the invaders from trying to repeat the intimidation.

Hanging up the phone, he nudged Hongbin to sleep in bed with him instead of the couch, at least for a few hours. It was already dawn and Hyuk wanted to talk to the ex-lieutenant. He hadn't seen him in a long time, but despite his unforgivable mistake, he’d been a great help and was a friend while he worked there.

Hyuk didn’t know why he had chosen to call him, to ask for help, after four years at least. But he understood that the old man considers him a person he could count on.

♰♰♰♰

Hyuk didn't speak to him anymore until three days later when he received another call. It came from the number of the ex-lieutenant but he said nothing. All Hyuk heard was a sound like a storm and desperate screams. Then the call was dropped.

Minutes later, the phone rang again. The sound was something like pouring rain. Thunder could be heard. In the background, the same cries for help. There were several voices, of men, women and children. Hyuk called the ex-lieutenant several times, but he didn't hear his voice. The call went dead then.

He tried to return the call but failed. He looked at the clock on the wall. It was 3:30 am. He called the sergeant and he told him, after consulting with his colleagues for some time, that the patrol was still stationed outside the house but hadn’t registered any further attempted invasions or anything strange.

He called the ex-lieutenant again, and this time he answered, in a voice that had just woken up. He said he was okay, that he hadn't called Hyuk and hadn't heard any sound of rain or people screaming.

He hung up, but couldn't sleep. It was probably just a weird problem in the line or some of those interferences in telecommunications that no one can't explain.

♰♰♰♰

A week later, the ex-lieutenant called him back. But this time, he was strange again. He called it around 9 pm. He said he was hearing noises outside the house and asked Hyuk to go there. Hyuk asked about the police patrol and he replied that, two days ago, they weren’t longer sending the car to the house. Hyuk was on his way to the ex-lieutenant's house, after a long trip in the KTX, and now with a rental car heading towards the country house. It took 20 minutes to make the journey. On the way, Hyuk called the sergeant and reported what the ex-lieutenant said. He promised to get a car and send it to the scene as soon as possible. When Hyuk arrived at the house, there was still light. The trees danced in the wind, the stream made a pleasant sound as it descended the slope and the cicadas sang in a true symphony. But other than that, he heard no noise at all. He knocked on the door and the old man promptly answered. He was scared, his eyes were puffy, his hair was messy. Before Hyuk could greet him, the old man pulled him into the house and locked the door, with all possible locks.

“What happened?”

He put his finger over his lips, asking for silence.

“They’re back.”

He looked like someone else. Perhaps he was even on medication. The ex-lieutenant pulled Hyuk over and placed him sitting on the sofa next to the man.

"They're back," he said in an anguished tone. “I thought they were going to leave me alone, but they’re back. I can see the shadows moving around the house. I can hear the whispers.”

Hyuk quickly went to the window and looked out. He only could see the trees swaying.

“Easy now. There’s nothing out there. Only trees and cicadas.”

He clenched his fists and bit his hand.

“They’re quiet now. About five minutes ago, they stopped. But it’s always like that. They torment me. They begin to appear only as figures around the house. They just move and whisper. Then they settle down and when I think it's all over, that's where the nightmare starts.”

Hyuk looked out again. He couldn't see anything besides the trees and the car parked in front of the house.

"There's no one here," Hyuk said.

There was no sign of anyone around the house. Hyuk asked ex-lieutenant to sit in the room while he went to the kitchen to grab some water or anything that helped the old man to calm down.

The lieutenant grabbed his arm desperately so Hyuk wouldn't leave his side. tried to calm him down, saying that he would be right next door if he needed anything. He let go of my arm but kept looking at every corner of the room and the windows.

Hyuk went into the kitchen, took some water from the refrigerator when the lights started to flash and then went out. He skin shivered instantly. Hyuk fumbled for a while in the kitchen, until his eyes got used to the darkness. The whole house had gone out. They were in the dark. Hyuk patted his pockets looking for the cellphone that wasn't there. He’d forgotten inside the car.

“Sir!”, Hyuk shouted, not quite sure why he was shouting. The old man didn't answer. There’s only silence answering him back. That's when things started to get weird and Hyuk started to feel irrational fear. A sudden blackout like that has some kind of power over anyone. Suddenly, Hyuk felt something running behind him. He looked back. The door had been opened, but he didn't see anyone.

A shout came from the room.

It was the ex-lieutenant.

Hyuk tried to run over there, but he hit his thigh on the kitchen table and fell to the floor. He felt someone's presence there. It was dark, but he could see movement. Without getting up, he dragged himself into the room. The lights flashed and he could see dark shadows moving around the kitchen.

With some difficulty and a horrible pain in his leg, Hyuk got up and shouted for the ex-lieutenant again. He was no longer on the couch and the door to the room was open. With the little light that came in through the door and the windows, Hyuk could see muddy footprints.

The lights flashed again. There were dozens of muddy footprints.

“Sir!” Hyuk shouted again and noticed, through the window, dark silhouettes moving quickly outside the house.

Then he heard someone whimpering. It came from behind the chair. Hyuk bent down and saw the ex-lieutenant. He was huddled.

“They came to get me. I know that they’re always here…. ”he said finally.

“ Who's coming to get you? Who are those people?” 

“The dead ... The people who lost their lives in that tragedy. Oh, my God, what have I done? ”

Hyuk heard the sound of footsteps entering the room and voices wailing. The noise came from all sides. So, Hyuk felt there was someone behind me. He felt the presence of several people. There were several breaths, sniffing on his back, and a strong smell of wet earth. He didn't dare to look back.

A cold, damp hand touched Hyuk’s shoulder and at the same time, a shiver ran through his body. There was something behind him and the ex-lieutenant could see what it was. It must have been a little awful because his eyes were so wide that there was little left to jump out of his face. Hyuk was so scared that he wanted to scream, but he couldn't. Then, he closed his eyes and starting to pray something. In the middle of the prayer, the hand released his shoulder and the horrible sound stopped. The light came back.

The skin shivered again. When Hyuk looked back, he didn't see anyone there, but he noticed that the walls were all dirty with muddy handprints. The door was still wide open.

Hyuk saw then red lights approaching the house. It was the police patrol, which the sergeant had promised to send to there. Two policemen got out of the car and went to the door. Hyuk received them and took them to the ex-lieutenant, who was motionless, breathing hard.

The two helped him to put him in his feet and put then sitting in the armchair. Hyuk told him what had happened and one of the policemen said something and make the sign of the cross. They called an ambulance, which took the old man back to the hospital.

Nor did Hyuk, nor the police wanted to stay at the house after the ambulance left. When Hyuk got back to Seul in his house, he was afraid to go into those dark rooms. As Hyuk reached out to find the switch and turn on the light, he wondered that, at any moment, that cold, wet hand would grab him again.

Anyway, after a little hesitation, Hyuk went into the house and ran through every room to turn it on the lights. Until now, he couldn't believe what he had witnessed on that late night. Hyuk visited him at the hospital days after, but he was in shock and didn't say anything.

Hyuk remembered his terrified, glassy look staring to something so scary that was behind Hyuk that night. What could be so horrible that it made him immobilized? Hyuk shivered as he remembered those shadows. Suddenly, he was so scared that he quickly got up from that dark room and went out into the bright hospital corridor.

A nurse, who passed by the corridor on the spot, looked at him in amazement. Hyuk closed the door to the room and left the hospital, shivering at the memory.

The ex-lieutenant was soon discharged, but that was the last time Hyuk saw him.

It wasn't terrible as the first catastrophe, but houses collapsed and some people died. He remembers reading the newspaper and seeing that one of the buried houses was the ex-lieutenant’s house, which had been swallowed up by the hill. Hyuk couldn't feel any sadness about it.

He just felt a chill again.

His body had been rescued, lifeless, from the mud, after two days of work by the firefighters.

♰♰♰♰

A few days later, the cell phone beeped. It was a voice message. When Hyuk saw the sender, he almost dropped the device on the floor. His hands were shaking: it was a message from the ex-lieutenant. It had been sent three weeks ago, exactly on the night of the storm. But, for some reason, he had only reached Hyuk's phone that day. It took him more than two days to build up courage and hear the message. Staring at the cell phone screen and, with a trembling finger, he pressed the button to play the recording with the old man’s voice.

 _“Hello ... Hello ... Please answer ... They are here again ...” A pause.”... They are always here... Oh, my God, they came here at home... What do you want? What do you want, you bastards?”_ Hyuk heard incomprehensible sounds of countless voices, _“Hello ... Are you there? Help! Help!“_ , more voices making incomprehensible sounds _, ”They’re all in front of me. Men, women and children ... with their bodies ... their bodies ... decaying. They will take me tonight! They’re going to take me to hell tonight!”_

The last thing Hyuk heard are the cries of the ex-lieutenant mixed with others; then a loud bang and the recording ends.

The silence of the dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hyuk police! au is something....Oof!  
> Thanks for reading, wait for tomorrow, I'll have something. Anyway, I'm @vixxastra on twitter! Go there, say hi....!


	2. Love Marks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 - prompt: Secret / "I love you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: blood  
> tw: injury

_Seeing isn't always a prerequisite to belief._

_In fact, oftentimes the things we believe in_

_the most strongly are invisible to our naked eyes._

_But when we experience those invisible things_

_through pain and physical attacks,_

_our belief can become deep,_

_paralyzing fear._

♰♰♰♰

Wonsik never was a saint. He was what could be called a relationship profiteer. Three months was the limit that a relationship could last and whenever he did, he did it with pride and irresponsibility, not caring in any way for any broken heart that he could leave behind. Going to nightclubs was seen by him as a kind of hunt where everything and everyone was more beautiful under neon lights, alcohol, loud music and sweat. And that was how he managed to spend most of his life. With sweet words, while everyone he dated lent him money or gave expensive gifts while Wonsik would allege the biggest lies that made people believe him, turning him into a modern vampire feeding by millionaire pockets.

This was one of those nights. Normally Wonsik used to go to night clubs in Gangnam, but with the recent relationship ending, he decided to go to Hongdae. He definitely didn't want to go against the possibilities of meeting the one who “loved” before. There was this club in Hongdae that he little heard about and decided to go check out. The place was full of smoke from dry ice. Coloured lights transformed the place into a multicoloured kingdom of many colours and sensations. Wonsik was holed up in a dark corner of the club, accompanied only by a drink, since he had found nothing interesting for his eyes or pocket. He was concluding that that night was lost.

Wonsik was about to leave that strange club when he bumped into someone. He was ready to swear until he saw whom he had run into. His eyes look at a pair of delicate eyes with a deep shade of brown, there was a lock of hair between them, but what most called for him was the number of earrings in one ear, the elegant black clothes and an aura that made him attractive and extremely mysterious.

“Wow ....”, Wonsik managed to speak.

The other smiled shyly.

"A thousand pardons for bumping into you." The strange said. “My name is Jung Taekwoon and I'm the owner here. How about if I buy you a drink? I may convince you to stay a little longer.”

Taekwoon smiled again. And Wonsik accepted the offer without thinking twice, imagining that he had finally found his prey.

The “I love you” escaped Wonsik’s lips easily weeks after that night. And although he had managed to fill his pocket with gifts and money from Jung Taekwoon, there was something strange. Wonsik didn’t want to end the relationship. There was something about Taekwoon that was mesmerizing and Wonsik couldn't explain in words.

They celebrated a one-month relationship and everything looked happy. Two months and Wonsik was in the clouds. In the third month, things started to get weird. To an outsider, it seemed like a normal relationship but something was not right for Wonsik.

He was waking up tired. No matter how many hours he slept, the next morning he would wake up exhausted especially on the nights he spent away from Taekwoon. That morning wasn’t different. He got up from the bed because of an itchy neck. While brushing his teeth, he looked into the mirror and saw a bruise on his neck. It was a tiny superficial cut in the skin, but Wonshik didn't quite remember how he had been injured. He just took some medicine and forgot about it for the rest of the day.

That night, he met Taekwoon at the nightclub.

"I love you ..." Taekwoon said in the middle of a passionate and shy kiss while the two of them were making out on the office couch above the dance floor where no one could hear their moans through loud music.

"I love you too ..." Wonsik replied and stared at Taekwoon for long seconds. There was a bright violet circle around Taekwoon's pupil almost imperceptible and Wonsik wondered if Taekwoon was wearing coloured contact lenses that night but let his thoughts slip through Taekwoon's hands that knew exactly where to touch him and how excites him. They slept together in an apartment in Changwon for the rest of the morning and that day (he had missed the hours of the day) in each other's arms while their sleepy sighs mingled.

The other night, he slept alone. And when Wonsik woke up he felt that there was a little deeper cut on his neck.

“Shit! I cut myself again!”Wonsik spoke as he got out of bed.

Only, again, he didn't remember where he'd been hurt. This time, it was bleeding. He went to the bathroom, put on an antiseptic, and closed the wound with gauze and band-aid.

It was nearing the end of the third month and Wonshik had finally reached a final decision that he would continue with Taekwoon and would leave that old life. Wonsik really loved him and was surprised how often his mind was imagining something romantic like living together forever, a thought that would have surprised Wonsik three months ago before meeting Taekwoon.

Then there was a third time and that was when Wonsik started to get worried. There was an even deeper cut, in the same place. He felt the pain when he woke up in the morning. Wonsik could barely move his neck. Wonsik couldn't be hurt the day before without realizing it. It was a considerable cut and made, apparently, by a sharp and fine object like a needle. He could see that there were two deep points and a cut connecting those points.

Wonsik sat on the bed and stopped to think about those cuts. Then, fear came over him. What is happening?! Someone is walking into his apartment at night and doing this to me! What if someone still there?

In a panic, he stood up and picked up a heavy vase near the bed to protect himself. He walked slowly until he reached the bedroom door. The whole house was in darkness.

Slowly, he went to the living room door. It was the only entrance to his apartment. It was locked. The windows were also closed, but it was practically impossible for anyone to get in there. The apartment was too high.

Still struggling, he walked around the house in search of the alleged invader. He looked in the living room, in the kitchen, in the laundry area and the bedroom. He looked behind every curtain, under every table and bed, inside every closet. Anything. He then treated the wound with antiseptic and covered it with gauze.

That day, he met Taekwoon in the early evening. They both ate together, it looked like a romantic dinner in a small and simple restaurant in Hongdae. Taekwoon's gaze went from Wonsik's neck to the plate of food in front of him, almost untouched. Taekwoon said he wasn’t hungry and despite this detail, the night ended without any major problems. Taekwoon had to go to the club and Wonsik followed, he didn’t feel sleepy and was able to stay up all night, just closing his eyes the other day, while lying in Taekwoon's apartment who seemed to be at peace with his face pressed against Wonsik's shoulder. Wonsik just admired him for long minutes, about how beautiful was his boyfriend with delicate eyes, a soft sleepy sigh and one of the teeth biting his lip that always made Wonsik want to kiss it forever and ever.

"Wonsik ..." Taekwoon whispered, “I have a secret to tell you ...”

“What secret?” Wonsik spoke between a bubbly laugh. “That you love me?”

“Hm ...”

Taekwoon didn’t respond. He just fell asleep for the rest of the day. Wonsik stayed there until the afternoon and left Taekwoon asleep while he went to solve some matters in his apartment.

The next day, another cut, this time, on the left side of the neck. When Wonsik woke up in the morning, he was in unbearable pain. He was afraid to look around her neck, contenting herself with only the bloodstain on the sheets of his bed.

Without thinking too much, he called Taekwoon, but the call fell into the voicemail box. He ended up asking for help from the doorman of the building who called a taxi and went straight to the hospital to treat the injury. The emergency doctor sutured the cut and all he had to do was use the medicine to prevent inflammation and infection.

The next night, he woke up startled several times, checking his own neck for further cuts. He found nothing. He also got up twice to check if anyone was inside the apartment. The door was still locked and the windows were closed. Everything in silence.

Despite all the vigilance, Wonsik woke up with another cut, this time a little longer. The wound was deep. The cut hurt and made him sick. The bed was all bloody.

“How?! How is this possible? That cut wasn't here last time! How could I not feel something cutting me?”, Wonsik spoke with difficulty.

He looked startled in all directions. Although he was in great pain, he was also very afraid. He took a shirt from the closet and tied it over the wound so it would stop bleeding. And if blood loss could cause hallucinations, he could have sworn he saw a figure going from room to room while he closed the apartment door.

Wonsik returned to the hospital. The doctor was different from the one who had seen him the day before, but the receptionist recognised him and looked at him.

"Are you happen to be meeting a vampire at night?" She spoke in a fun way, a little joke to lighten the mood of the place.

The wound was sutured and Wonsik explained that he was already being treated for a wound on the other side of the neck. The doctor looked like he wanted to know what Wonsik has done to have two deep cuts in two straight days on the neck, but he curbed his curiosity.

Wonsik returned home in anguish and wanted to cry. What was happening to him after all? Lying on the bed, he texted Taekwoon. After responding to Taekwoon saying that _he only had to enter the apartment and that he wouldn’t need to call him_ , Taekwoon appeared at the end of the day with a sweetly sleepy face, sweetly rubbing his eyes and placed himself watching Wonsik's neck in concern. Taekwon bitted his lip in a subtle way, something that Wonsik had always found sexy while both are going through the house chores.

That night, they slept together in the same bed and nothing happened. And they stayed together for two weeks, where every morning, Wonsik checked his neck and realized that there was nothing wrong with him, no new cuts.

As Wonsik improved, Taekwoon seemed to get more and more strange. Grumpy, he didn't care about his messy, puffy eyes and he was more exhausted than ever although he slept most of the day due to staying up at night due to the nightclub. One night Wonsik slept in his own apartment after a little misunderstanding between both about something silly. Maybe Wonsik was too needy and needed time for himself. He closed his eyes until he felt a weight above him. In his sleepy mind, he just believed it to be a mere case of sleep paralysis. Taekwoon was above him, red eyes and thin fang showing in blood-stained red lips.

“I'm sorry ... I love you too ... I want you forever. I'll never let you go ...” Taekwoon sighed. Wonsik closed his eyes again trying to convince himself that it was just a strange nightmare.

 _"Do you happen to be meeting a vampire at night?"_ The hospital receptionist's voice echoed somewhere in his mind and made perfect sense when he felt excruciating pain in the right side of his neck.

My God!!!

 _Taekwoon was there_. Holding himself against Wonsik's neck, and he looked like he was weighing nothing. Wonsik, with some possible strength drawn from his survival instinct, got up from the bed, pushing Taekwoon away from him, who looked like anything except his boyfriend.

Wonsik let out a scary cry, which echoed throughout the apartment and was probably heard even by the building's doorman, a lot of floors below. With one hand on his neck, and in pain, he left a red-coloured trail down the hall to the elevator. At the reception, while a muffled cry for help escaped his lips, he fell to the floor of the building, unconscious.

He was taken to the emergency room and later when the sedatives faded, it took Wonsik a while to remember where he was. He looked around in fear, realizing he was in a hospital and his neck was immobile.

He pressed the emergency button in the room, unable to control his crying. A nurse came running. Wonsik asked what they did. She replied that she was sorry, but that she didn't know much either, then said that the surgeons just had an operation to close the strange wound and that he was lucky because he had lost a lot of blood.

The nurse left the room after saying goodbye. Then, in a train of thought, he remembered Taekwoon, his boyfriend and what happened. He saw the cell phone next to his bed, but he didn't remember if he brought it with him, maybe it was in the pocket of the sweat pants he was wearing?

In the middle of the bright screen, there was a message, his conversation with Taekwoon.

“I love you too ... I want you forever. I'll never let you go...I have a secret to tell you. ”

He hung up the phone. Scared. Anxious. And he was never more afraid of how the seconds brought him closer to sunset than that day.

_I love you too ..._

_I want you forever._

_I'll never let you go._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> I'm inspired by the vampires from Thirst by Park Chanwook go check out!  
> I'm in twitter by @vixxastra. Say hi there!


	3. Early Messenger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3: prompt: house/ "You're so beautiful"

**Restricted Id**

Good night _11:00pm_

I said: good night _11:10pm_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_11:11pm_ Who are you? 

**Restricted ID**

Please say good night 11:11pm

**Jaehwannie!!**

_11:14pm_ I don't even know who you are.

Your phone number doesn't even appear to me

 _11:15pm_ How did you get my number?

**Restricted ID**

You're rude _11:15pm_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_11:19pm_ I'll block you 

**Restricted ID**

Please don't do this, I want to meet you _11:19pm_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_11:23pm_ But I don't want to meet you. Goodbye

**Restricted ID**

I just want to talk to you _11:24pm_

Hi. Are you there? _11:35pm_

I know you're there _11:39pm_

**Jaehwannie!!**

Stop annoying me.

 _11:41pm_ I don't know why I'm not able to block you,

but I'll call the police

**Restricted ID**

You can try, but you'll find that you can't make phone calls either _11:42pm_

Hahahahaha.

How are the attempts? Have you got a signal for your phone? _11:50pm_

I bet you didn't _11:50pm_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_11:55pm_ Who are you? I will talk to my roomate. He's a cop! 

**Restricted ID**

You can't fool me. I know you're home alone _11:56pm_

What's up? Are you going to say goodnight or not? _11:57pm_

You're so beautiful, so handsome!! _12:04am_

It's all right. I wait for your bath to end _12:07am_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_12:12am_ You sicko! Stop it! How can you know about these things?

**Restricted ID**

Do I need to invade your privacy to get your attention? _12:12am_

There's no point ignoring me _12:20 am_

I see you locked yourself in the room on the second floor _12:25am_

Are you afraid? _12:25am_

There's no point in trying to send messages to other people. _12:27am_

You have no signal or internet. I'm the only person with whom you can communicate _12:27am_

What a pity. You're alone _12:28am_

Please open your curtains and look out the window. I'm here _12:31am_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_12:37am_ I'm looking. There's nobody here on the street

**Restricted ID**

Who said I'm on the street? _12:37am_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_12:38am_ You asked me to look out the window

**Restricted ID**

But I didn't say I was on the street _12:38am_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_12:38am_ Where are you then?

**Restricted ID**

Look ahead _12:39am_

To the other side of the street _12:39am_

What are you seeing? _12:39am_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_12:40am_ I do not see anything. Only the empty cemetery

**ID Restricted**

That! _12:40am_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_12:43am_ You're just a sicko, who wants to scare me

**Restricted ID**

Do you want to meet me? _12:48am_

I'm crossing the street now and I'm going to enter your house ... _12:50 am_

**Jaehwannie!!**

You won't scare me, you asshole.

 _12:50 am_ I ain't seeing anyone crossing the street

**Restricted ID**

There's no point trying to see me, you won't make it _12:50 am_

Why don't you go down the stairs now?

I'm already down here, waiting for you _12:52 am_

Why is it taking so long? Come on, get down soon _12:55 am_

Do I have to pick you up up there? _12:58 am_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_01:01 am_ Please don't hurt me

**Restricted ID**

How do you know I'm going to hurt you? _01:02 am_

**Jaehwannie!!**

_01:03 am_ Why are you doing this?

 _01:05 am_ Stop! Please! Ok? I won't open the door! Go away!

**Restricted ID**

I'm just scratching the door to scare you.

You don't have to open the door,

because I'm already inside your room _01:06 am_

There's no point looking for me,

you'll only be able to see me if I want to show up _01:08 am_

Don't cry ... _01:08 am_

Booo _01:10 am_

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA _01:10am_


	4. Ferry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 — prompt world: Cold/Hello?Hello???  
> tw:blood  
> tw:character death

The first person Hakyeon took for a ride was his longtime friend, days after he had gone to his funeral. He came along with the smell of incense that had burned until the end during the funeral and had left him feeling sick. It was the first time that he lost someone so close.

The friend came to him while Hakyeon slept. Still a little sleepy, he woke up, took just a coat to protect himself from the cold along with his keys and went to the car. It was only when he was in the car that he realized what had happened.

His friend didn't say much, except that he needed to go to Seoul Station.

And that was a pattern that Hakyeon started to notice, as it became more frequent. They called him a ferry and asked to be taken to the airport, port or train station, appearing in the middle of the night or early in the morning when the dawn hadn’t even started. As soon as Hakyeon reached the final goal, they disappeared.

Many were calm just like their friend. Some old people who died because of age or some illness. Others died due to an accident and they appeared just like that in front of Hakyeon: broken, bruised, torn apart but with a certainty that they were dead and just needed a “ferry”.

That was until he decided to pursue a career as a dancer and become quite famous for it. They still came to him and he continued to drive a few times, but not as much as before. Close friends knew and although they said they understood him, he often believed that they were just playing with him as they often did for so much less. Now he was VIXX leader and living in the same dorm didn’t offer that chance to have many secrets about anything, so they knew.

And then someone close to him died again.

Somehow, everyone knew, but they pretended not to know that the story would end like that. _“It's just the way we face death after all”_ Hakyeon thought. _“We try to say to ourselves that none of us could die anyway.”_

Hakyeon continued with his work hoping that his friend would come to his door asking for a ride. Never happened.

Once, Hakyeon fell asleep on the sofa in the VIXX dorm, he woke up from his light sleep with Taekwoon in the kitchen staring at a cup of cold coffee for what seemed like hours.

"Will you see him? Will you take him for a ride as you say you do? I wanted to talk to him, one last time. To ask for forgiveness for not seeing before.", Taekwoon commented when he finally realized that Hakyeon was in front of him a little sleepy but surprised that Taekwoon finally realized him there and even more for making sure he really understood him.

"He didn't come. I don't think he will come. It's been over a week ...", Hakyeon commented, placing the blanket around himself and sitting amid fugitive yawns in the chair opposite Taekwoon. "Those who came usually are older than me ... I'm sorry."

Taekwoon looked at the coffee again, as if all the answers could be found there.

And that was forgotten until many months later, that conversation lost between nights and workdays. These two things piled up as the comeback approached.

One day while they were on the way for a concert, their car was involved in a serious accident.

Hakyeon woke up in the hospital, where lucid was some kind of joke to describe his situation. Machines and wires around him cutting his skin and flesh but he saw Taekwoon there. He saw him through a cloud of painkillers as doctors surrounded him struggling to keep him alive. His eyes closed again, but he was sure that Taekwoon was there beside him.

Days went by when Hakyeon finally woke up dead of the night. He was better but still in the hospital.

Taekwoon was there.

"Hello? Hello ???", Hakyeon spoke in a hoarse way trying to be funny. "What happened?"

Hakyeon tried to reach him, but Taekwoon remained silent. Taekwoon reached out to Hakyeon’s hand. That was when he saw that there was an ugly cut on Taekwoon's neck, that part of his clothes was dirty with blood. He smiled sweetly as his hand went through Hakyeon's.

"An accident...", he spoke softly. "I need a ride too.”


	5. Possessed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5 — Prompt: magic/You took my wings but you left my claws  
> tw:violence  
> tw:torture

The killer didn’t know very well when he had started such a desire to kill something, but he knew that this impulse had become uncontrollable overtime. It wasn’t linked to a sexual desire, he simply felt that he should kill people. The curious thing, however, was that he never dared to grant his wish and murder the victims. He always came very close to acting, but he always gave up before doing something.

He didn't spend the whole time thinking about killing. But in general, after his murderous impulse chose the victim, the desire would be in his head for several days in a row.

Since those victims were strangers, he never saw them again. If he missed the chance to kill, he gets frustrated for a long time, without the possibility of trying again with that victim.

That day he decided that he would have to kill someone but this time, he decided to plan. He had a car and knew the ruins of an old house in the mountains.

Whichever victim was chosen by his "murdering self", he would take them there and kill them.

Before he even knew who the victim was, he visited the place many times so that nothing would go wrong. It took some time for the impulse to come up again. This time, he was walking from work to the bus stop at night when he saw the young man around the corner and walking on the opposite sidewalk.

As always, he couldn't understand why, but he wondered how his fingers would look around his neck or how his body would be adorned with several knife wounds and he’d no control over that.

The killer accompanied the man at a distance for three quarters until he entered a house.

He hanged around the place for hours, until the lights went out. Then he went back to the bus stop and headed home. The next day, at the same bus stop, he waited for the young man to pass through the street. It took longer than the night before and the had to let five buses pass.

Walking across the opposite sidewalk, he followed the young man to the same house the day before. The killer was sure he lived there. A day later he decided to go to work by car. He parked very close to the corner where the man used to appear, and when he turned the corner, even though he hesitated for a few seconds thinking he was going to falter again, he grabbed the victim, covered his mouth with a cloth filled with chloroform and got into the backseat of the car, unconscious.

The killer sat in the driver's seat and slowly drove out of the car, wishing to not attract anyone's attention. His heart was racing, his mind didn't settle for an instant, imagining the moment when he would take that person's life. It didn't take long to get to the abandoned house's ruins and the man was still unconscious, so he carried him to a huge room which must have been the living room and placed him seated propped on a pillar.

In the car, he took a rope that he used to tie the man. He moved a little and the killer was excited. For the first time, he believed he would finally go through. He looked at the man's face and felt no pity or regret, then returned to the car and took a backpack there where he kept several tools that he could use to torture and kill his victim. The man woke up groggy and only then did the killer realize how handsome he was. He still hadn't paid enough attention to that detail. He was a handsome man and he was sicklily satisfied with that.

“Where am I?”, the young man asked, still unable to position himself properly. “Am I tied up? Why?”

He must have been the same age as the killer but his voice was sweet. He answered nothing, just sat on two bricks in the middle of the room and was smiling at him. The young man tried to free himself from the rope and started screaming for help. He continued to look at him and could see that the more the chloroform effect passed, the more frightened his victim became. The murderous desire simply took over and he took pleasure in the other's fear.

He opened the backpack and saw what he had at his disposal. He first picked up a handsaw and showed it to the man, who cried with dread.

“Let me go! Let me go!”

He couldn't stop smiling. He approached him and dragged the handsaw off the man's leg. The blade slightly injured his foot and soon the blood began to flow. He shouted louder but the killer didn't bother. His animal side had taken care of him and he wasn't even concerned if anyone would hear his screams.

Returning to the backpack, he put away the saw and took out a knife. The killer leaned the sharp object against belly’s victim while he struggled. With the victim's desperation, the knife ended up cutting his skin. More blood flowed. This time, he laughed out loud. He thought he could be torturing him all night, without getting bored.

“Shh ... Don’t cry. What's your name, hm?”

“Cha... Hakyeon... Please let me go. I just want to leave.”

“Hakyeon, I'm sorry to tell you, but you aren’t leaving here.”

The killer punched him in the face. And another. And another... And Hakyeon kept screaming.

He walked over to the backpack and this time the killer came back with a hammer and a nail. Hakyeon gave a high-pitched cry when he saw those objects. He put the nail on his shoulder and he stopped shaking, for fear of getting hurt more.

"Please ... please ... please ...", he kept repeating, pausing in his screams.

A higher cry came from his throat when the hammer pushed the nail into the bones of his shoulder. And then Hakyeon passed out. The killer stopped laughing for a moment. It wasn't supposed to the victim die that fast. He took the Hakyeon's wrist and his heart was still beating, but no matter what the killer did, Hakyeon didn't wake up.

With the hammer in his hand, he stood up and looked at Hakyeon passed out in front of him wanting him to wake up soon.

A few minutes later, Hakyeon still with his eyes closed and whispered something while waking up. The killer approached - as Hakyeon continued to speak very quietly.

Since it wasn’t yet possible to hear what he was saying, he had to get his ear close to the Hakyeon's mouth. At that moment, he felt teeth biting hard on the side of his head. They tore his skin and the ear off. That sudden pain made him scream and walk away from the man.

The killer put his hands on the wound and realized he was bleeding non-stop. The man spat out the severed ear and gave a high-pitched laugh that echoed through the old house. When the killer looked back at the young man, he saw that Hakyeon’s eyes were open, but were completely white. It wasn’t possible to see the iris or the pupil. Everything was white.

Hakyeon continued to laugh out loud. It was a chuckle that made the killer shiver. He crawled farther away from him. Then Hakyeon stopped laughing and looked at him in silence. Instinctively, the killer gripped the hammer more tightly. The murderous impulse seemed to have abandoned him and he was afraid.

Hakyeon realized that the killer was scared and laughed again. It was a macabre laugh. _“What happened to this boy?_ ”, the Killer thought.

Hakyeon rose in the direction of the assassin who tried to get up but failed. Some kind of magic seemed to keep him sitting right there.

Then Hakyeon cracked his neck, the fingers of his hands seemed to suffer some kind of spasm as his lips were painted in the corners with the blood from the plucked ear, laughing out loud when the ropes that held him to the pilaster seemed much more like a line easily torn.

The killer tried to get up again, without success, while the young man - if that creature could be called a man - approached him, walking in a way that more resembled a living dead, someone possessed stepping out of movie horror.

The killer, who was trapped on the ground, tried in vain to crawl away from Hakyeon. Then, Hakyeon got his face very close to his. His eyes were completely white, the corners of his mouth were stained with blood, His skin looked like a skin’s corpse, a breath of sulfur and nails that resembled claws.

In a hoarse voice, Hakyeon asked:

"Why was I tied up and hurt?"

The killer could barely speak.

“Hakyeon?!”

The boy laughed like an insane person. “Oh, he isn’t here”, he replied, after finishing the laugh.

He looked at his injured shoulder and he used one hand to pull the nail off his shoulder as if it were a lint of fabric or a speck of dust.

“Did you happen to put that on my shoulder?”

“I'm sorry, Hakyeon...”

Hakyeon rose to his feet in a sudden movement while shouting:

“I already said that Hakyeon isn’t here!!!”

The killer still stuck to the floor, trapped by an invisible force.

“I thought that was your name ...”

“Hakyeon was the poor creature you’re torturing. It was just the channel I used to appear here.”

“Who are you?”, the killer asked, terrified. His murderous impulse had indeed abandoned him and left him alone with that frightening creature.

Another laugh made the killer's bones freeze.

“I have several names but none of them is for your ear...”

The killer, who was still on the floor, tried to make the sign of the cross, but before he could finish it, he was knocked to the ground.

“Please...”

Then, the creature flew over him and with its claws, ripped the killer's neck. - Please ... ple ... “ he tried to say, as the blood flowed.

"You tried... took off my wings, but left me with my claws."

The creature's right hand took the nail and without needing a hammer buried it in the killer’s eye.

The killer let out a cry while that creature laughed.

The killer's family reported his disappearance to the police the next day, but his body was never found.


	6. Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6 — prompt: Song/I can't remember

Leo is always singing. He loves to sing songs and melodies and has always been that way, often unconsciously. And it comes down to this: Just melodies, never words. He's an introvert, always quiet and often without much desire to participate in many activities. So, there are always those who want to pull him to participate in anything little by little, so that he gets comfortable with that and lets the shyness go away. People find him intimidating, but it all comes down to the fact that he is extremely shy.

Other people are more outgoing about him and some end up spending a lot of time with him and making space when he needs it. And I am one of them. I don't know exactly how to sing, but I know how to play the piano very well and I like how some of these melodies turn into beautiful movements of my fingers on the piano keys. Black and white key are transformed into a dance floor. I also know how to dance and that's what I like to do the most.

Sometimes I sing, even though I don't think I'm the best person at this and I love it when others applaud. They love it. They love me. That day we finished one of the vocal training sessions amid smiles and sounds of admiration. Someone else suggests a song, the last one nothing much.

Verse one goes well. The year-end presentation is a few months away and we don't need to worry.

Verse two begins and a single voice can be heard out of tune. An indecipherable tongue that makes everyone have goosebumps.

Then I look at my fingers and the people around who are glancing at me and each other. They know that I'm friends with that stranger. Why did I decide to be friends with him?

"Shut up," I say, harshly.

"Ah... stop. Come on ... We have to go and rest. ” Hakyeon said.

I couldn't believe it. That stupid man sings something that only the gods know and am I to blame? But Hakyeon is right ... Time to go home, it was a long day.

"What was that song?"

“What song? I can’t remember what are you talking ’about. It wasn’t me. ”

Before going to bed that night, I want to practice some more. And again I hear the verse in a strange language that looks more like an attempt to summon some demon.

I turn around to find him sitting on my bed. The window should be open and that asshole must have come in through it. Hakyeon opens the bedroom door and asks in alarm.

"Hey, what was that?"

I explain that it was Leo and point out to him that he is sitting on the bed. He says that there is no one there. Is he crazy?

“Hakyeon .... Look! Leo! ”

“Jung Taekwoon! It’s only you. Singing… "


	7. The Mental Hospital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 7 — prompt: Madness/Can't you hear that?tw:implied self-harm and suicide  
> tw:Mental illness

Sanghyuk awakes alone in a dark room and takes a while to get the surrounds around him. He doesn’t remember where he is and with difficulty walks to the open door. His body hurts and when he looks at his arms he realizes that there are injuries.

Gradually, the memories return. He’s being held in a mental hospital. Before losing consciousness, he remembers looking at the reflection in the mirror saying something to him. He always heard so many voices and would just askin’ around if others heard too. He’d been admitted to the hospital for many months, years, days ... He wasn’t sure anymore about time. Maybe he succumbed to madness after all.

He tried to speak, but his throat hurt. He doesn't remember well what happened but someone must have rescued him and taken him to the emergency station. And someone - maybe the same person - brought him back to this room. How many days had passed since he was knocked out? He couldn't say.

Now the worst seems to be over. He looks at the other rooms and he sees that he’s alone in that wing. All the doors are open, but there’s no one else. Hyuk doesn’t t know exactly what happened, but he believes that most of those who were there were transferred to another place. This hospital is being discontinued and will be imploded to make room for popular homes. And he remembers seeing some of the other patients leaving the place.

Hyuk walks to the end of his wing. He can hear people talking in other wards. And his floor is still occupied. It will be one of the last to be emptied.

He leans against the door that separate the wing from the rest of the place and, with great dread, realizes that it’s also open. The wing is open to anyone who wants to get in and out. Feeling a great fear, Hyuk just walks away and goes back to his room. He closes the door, expecting to appear locked so that nurses don't think he's having a psychotic break.

Through the window, he sees more patients being escorted to the vehicles that are going to get them out of that place. There shouldn’t be many more patients left inside that hospital. And as far as Hyuk is concerned, he’s one of the last patients. In the next days, everyone will be transferred to another hospital. And as strange may sound, his wounds don't seem to have healed. He put his hand on one of several bruises on his arms and he still feels the wet blood. How is it possible? He doesn't know for sure. He only knows that he survived and can walk around the place, even with all these injuries but what he does most is spends hours lying down without being able to sleep.

The next morning, still unable to sleep, Hyuk hears a noise coming from the opposite room. It’s very dark because the wing is without light. He approaches the door’s window trying to see who could be. Someone is lying on the room across the hall. He can see a person lying down on a bed.

Hyuk tries to call him, without making much noise, trying to not attract the nurses' attention. He hasn't been transferred yet.

“Shhh, shhh”, he repeats.

Hyuk sees one head lift and face him through an open in the other door. Hyuk doesn't recognize him. He opens the door which is also open like his and Hyuk can see that he isn’t bloody and he had no bruises on his body. There is only a purple mark on the neck. Who he is? Hyuk instinctively took a step back, seeking to move away from the door.

“Calm down,” the other man says “I won't hurt you. We’re colleagues.”

“How have I never seen you around here before?”

He doesn't respond and Hyuk remains prepared for the worst but he doesn't move towards him. Whoever Hyuk's neighbour is, he doesn't seem to want much, he just goes back to his room and lies down again. Hyuk is a little more relaxed. They only talk again later, when he hears noises from people close to them and Hyuk runs to the door to see if anyone has entered their ward.

“Don’t worry. No one will come here.” the stranger says, still in his room.

“How can you know for sure? If they find out we're still here and that all the doors are open, they'll end up punishing us.”

“Believe me. You don't have to worry about that.”

Hyuk still curious to know what he's doing there. Again, Hyuk asks who he is but again, he’s left unanswered. Hyuk looks at the patio through the bedroom window. It's still empty.

Later, he runs his hand around his neck. Still hurts. He still tries to open the shower, but he has no water.

“Hey. We don’t have electricity or water.” Hyuk tells his neighbour, trying to not make too much noise.

His neighbour answers nothing.

“I need to call one of the nurses, but I don't know how to do it. If I go to the door and call someone, they can see that I'm still here and thinks that I tried to escape.

Silence. Hyuk looks at his room and he can't find him. Slowly, he walks over there, worried about being seen in the hall. The door is open but he isn’t inside. Where did he go? Walking cautiously down the corridor, Hyuk looks at each of the other eight rooms in that wing and all are empty. He looks at one of the windows and sees in the courtyard another group of 50 patients leaving the place. The next day, he wakes up with someone talking to him. He gets up startled. It’s the mysterious neighbour. He's back at his room.

"The last group is leaving prison today," he says aloud.

Hyuk hears a noise from the prisoners, who make a commotion nearby.

Hyuk looks down the hall. Thank goodness, there’s no one in their ward. The noise is from the prisoners in the other rooms on that floor, who seem to be being mobilized for the transfer.

"Nobody has come to talk to us yet," Hyuk replies, trying to not speak too loudly. “ We should be in that last group.”

He just laughs and goes back to his bed. Later, Hyuk looks out the window and see a group of 40 prisoners gathered in the courtyard. They’re divided into smaller groups and sent to different vehicles.

“There go the last prisoners,” Hyuk hears his neighbour comment, in the other room. “ They’re happy because they’re going to leave this hell.”

The hospital became through the years the worst in the country: It’s old, dirty, damp, claustrophobic. Their walls haven’t seen a new layer of paint for at least one decade. Mould and stains decorated the hospital wings for years.

So far no one has come to Hyuk to prepare him for the transfer. He feels like it's time to call someone. They can't forget him there, right? He goes out down the hall and into the principal ward. Everything is so silent.

“Good luck, buddy”, his neighbour yells, as Hyuk leave their wing.

Hyuk carefully opens the door and go out into the pavilion, looking for someone. Anything. Everything is empty and there’s no one on the floor, but he can't get down because the stairs are locked. There’s no living soul in any of the six wings on that pavilion floor.

Hyuk loses the fear of attracting the attention of the other prisoners and give a loud cry.

He screams for a few minutes but no one comes to him. He decides to go back to his room and shout through the window. Those damn jerks forget him locked up on that floor?

Nobody looks up. No nurses, no medics, no patients. he sees the last two groups entering the transfer vehicles.

“There's no use is shouting like that.” The neighbour warns him.

“Why? Why doesn't anyone look? I should be in that group”, Hyuk starts to feel despair taking over him. “They forgot me here.”

Hyuk keeps trying to get their attention. For a moment, he thinks it works, because one of the doctors looks up. But his hope is gone when he looks down again as if he hasn't seen Hyuk. All the patients have already got into the cars. The doctors close the doors of the vehicles, which leave the hospital.

nurses also leave the building. Only two doctors return to the pavilion.

“They come to get me. They entered the building again. They remembered that I am here and come to get me. “My neighbour gets up and walks to the door. He's weird. His face looks paler. His lips are almost colourless. His hair looks like straw.

“They don't come for you. Believe me. They'll just pick up some documents and leave the hospital before gone dark.”

Hyuk runs back to the stairs and continues to shout. He’s stuck there, unable to leave, unable to call for help, running the risk of being forgotten in that building, which will be blown up in a few days. He screams for about two hours. Nobody comes to him.

Then, he returns desolate to his room.

“Look out the window” it's his neighbour's voice. He looks more hoarse than before. “ The doctors already finished packing what they needed and should be leaving the building by now.”

Hyuk looks down and really, two people are leaving the hospital with two boxes. They walk to the main courtyard where a car awaits and then leave the hospital.

“They'll still be back later to clean up their offices in the next few days. But no one will pass through this wing. They already took everything they wanted from this floor.” His neighbour says.

It is already dusk and in that fading light, Hyuk can’t see his ward colleague properly. He only sees a thin silhouette in the corner of the opposite room.

“Why are they leaving us behind?” Hyuk asks, discouraged.

“They're not leaving anyone behind. Everyone who had to be transferred is gone.”

“But I'm still here. How can they forget a patient?”

He laughs again and Hyuk wants to punch his face. How can he laugh at this situation? They’re at the risk of being forgotten there, without light, water or food for several days.

“Our destiny is to stay here, my friend.” says his neighbour with a hoarse voice.

“Why?“ Hyuk asks, not understanding what he means.

“ Do you ever wondered why nobody heard you scream?” He asks, sounding more and more uncomfortable. "Or why don't your wounds heal?" In fact, how long you ate something?”

Hyuk doesn't answer anything. Suddenly, he begins to feel great anguish. Everything around him darkens and he finds himself in the middle of the void. A void of darkness. That feeling lasts forever. So his neighbour's voice brings him back to his room.

“There is no way you could have survived at what you have done. Have you ever stopped to look at your neck? I'm sorry to say, but you were out of luck.”

“W-who are you? “

“I'm a patient. Just like you. I have been stuck here since 1946. I was killed by my madness, just like you. I should have been out of this place by now, but I’m staying here forever, just like you.”

“Am I d-dead?”

“Your body, yes. But, unfortunately, your soul wasn’t so lucky. At least, if you had died, you would cease your existence, you wouldn’t be condemned to wander through that building for eternity.

He put his hand around his neck, fingers against his bruises in the neck and the various bruises in his body. His blood is still wet. Hyuk looks at the mirror on the wall of his room and doesn't see his reflected image there. He’s dead.

“And even when they demolish this hospital, we will remain trapped here, in the memory of this building”, his companion continues. “These rooms we are in aren’t made of bricks. They’re eternal.

Hyuk looks out the window and he can’t longer see the hospital courtyard or the hill he could see beyond the walls. There’s nothing outside his window. Everything is dark. He screams for help and his screams echo through the empty building. Hyuk knows that no one will take him away. He won’t be transferred. He is now forever a patient from that hospital.


	8. Never go to the woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Midnight/please, please just run!

"Did they never tell you to not walk through that woods at midnight around the day of the autumn equinox?", The policeman asked.

 _'Yes,'_ Jaehwan thought _, 'and I never took it seriously.'_

He doesn't quite remember what happened, except that he found himself alone. Jaehwan was walking through the woods for what he believed to be only a few hours, but the cell phone he was carrying in his pocket said it had been almost a week. The cops were almost giving up the search, the dogs didn't even find his trail and looked like he just vanished in thin air to appear the same way: without warning. Except he was without his friends. He doesn't quite remember what led him to abandon the marked trail, by the way, he knew the place like the lines of his hand. After all, he was born and raised near the place and yes, he knew the stories, but he believed they were just stories.

He remember what caught his atention in the first place. It was the unusual sound of tv static combined with the jarring note of a piano. Too low, barely noticeable. Jaehwan probably wouldn't have paid attention if one of his friends hadn't pointed out.

"Did you hear that sound?" He asked very quietly but enough to be heard. He needed no effort, of course. The sound was the only thing they could hear: there wasn’t a bird or insect sound, and even the wind had stopped.

There was just static. They decided to follow the sound to the deepest part of the forest due to an unusual need to know the source of the sound.

After leaving the marked trail, when he and the others snaked through the thick thorns, over the large rocks that were left from the surrounding mountains and through several small streams that cross throughout the area they walked through to what seemed a few hundred meters and realized that the noise wasn’t getting louder but it seemed that it was getting more intense. The only way Jaehwan could describe such a sensation is when someone is very close to speakers that emit a strong bass note. The kind of sensation that vibrates in your bones, and you can feel it in your chest.

When they stopped to see where they are and organize their thoughts, they first saw the area from which the sound originated. Less than fifty meters from where they were, the forest ended abruptly. When they walked towards the end of the forest, they could see that the dense and difficult walking area of the forest quickly ended in a calm and open glade that allowed them to see the sky that at that moment was painted in shades of violet since it was getting dark. They then stood at the edge of the small field and watched carefully the surroundings and the sky, which was gradually darkening and painted with stars.

The place didn't seem anything unusual, just pebbles and grass and when they realized it was getting very dark they wondered if it was better to go home. It was only then that they hesitated to move on. The blind curiosity of the situation was replaced by a hesitant and cautious tone that made them think. In the end, the desire to get to the bottom of the mystery won, and they carefully decided to start across the open landscape and move slowly towards what seemed to be the source of the sound.

As they moved slowly towards the centre, the atmosphere in the place seemed heavier like walking underwater. One of Jaehwan's friends looked down and noticed that some of the smaller pebbles were sticking to their socks and boot laces. The three began to have a feeling of dread that Jaehwan was sure to be shared by them, but he didn't dare mention it first. Besides, he still wanted to know what was taking him further and he didn't want to be the fearful one who stopped them.

Almost halfway to the grassy place, Jaehwan looked up to see that the sky was divided. In the middle of the horizon, the sky looked normal. Early night, twilight mostly. When he looked up, there was a black circular mass of sky, trimmed on a shiny edge of milky white. It took him a few seconds to notice the stars that dotted the black background and the cold air flowed from that dark expansion.

The low hum of the static was now loud enough to drown out all the other sounds. The vibrations generated by the noise were shaking them to the bone and starting to give him a nauseating headache. Jaehwan looked back to see the rest of his friends behind him, looking at Jaehwan as if he was the leader of this expedition. Then, he turned to take his first look at the ball of bright white that had drawn them to this part of the forest, and now their all could see that thing was surrounded by eight tall, hooded figures that surrounded the ball.

One of Jaehwan’s friends slipped while trying to get closer to see better, causing a small slip of stones. One of the figures heard this commotion and slowly turned his head to look in their direction. Under the hood of his cloak was a pale face, with almost no features. There was a powdery texture to his skin, and his eyes looked black, but they had a deep glow. The creature looked in their direction and slowly raised a wrinkled hand with a long finger tipped by a black nail and pointed at them. The rest of the fingers were nothing more than ugly fingers, full of scars and discoloured skin. Mysterious symbol tattoos and an inscription the Jaehwan couldn't identify covered the loose skin of humanoid thing arms.

They’re noticed, and the macabre thing withdrew his hand and turned to face the other seven. The static noise had grown to a deafening roar, and there was an icy wind falling directly over them from the fissure in the sky. The ball of light became brighter and more intense. The howl that now came from the creatures looked like a freight train flying down the tracks without wheels. The orb that centred them had large flashes of blue and deep red emanating from its core and looked like a ball of arcing electricity.

They all were stunned, not knowing what they were witnessing, but having a deep guttural feeling of needing to leave. Then, Jaehwan turned to start his escape, and as he did, the noise, light and icy bursts from above increased and he lost his balance. The last thing Jaehwan remember is the expression on the faces of his two friends. Pure fear written on their faces when Jaehwan fell and the ghouls' disfigured hands wrapped around their ankles, pulling them toward the centre of their macabre ceremony.

Someone screamed.

“Jaehwan! Run! Just run!!“

Everything went black.

It was hot now. The cold wind that blew over him had been replaced by the last warm that accompanies summer there. Jaehwan was at the edge of the woods they had been in before. His head throbbed and there were bits of dried blood covering his knees and elbows, and his mouth felt like it had been stuffed with cotton balls. He pulled himself together and looked out his surroundings. The sky had nothing except a hazy blue and the only breeze found had the scent of pine and earth and seemed thick with moisture, nothing like the arctic explosion of his recent memory. He struggled to his feet and called his two friends, but received no answer.

Jaehwan started tried to find his friends while panic started to set in as he ran through the surrounding bushes and trees. There wasn’t sign that they had been there, and after an hour of searching he ran back in the direction of the marked trail that he hoped was where he remembered.

He exploded through the thick brush that lined the trail and fell flat on his face. Jaehwan was exhausted and crying the whole time he ran. What happened to him? What did he witness? Hehallucinated the whole thing, and why did he miss almost a whole week? Most importantly, where were his friends? He was too busy with those thoughts to notice the ranger standing next to him.

“Jaehwan? Lee Jaehwan? ”

"What's going on?", Jaehwan asked while the ranger helped him up and put him on the back of a car. He passed out again and woke up when he was at the rangers' checkpoint.

Jaehwan was questioned and released for medical care. His family were there, and the friends' parents were sitting in a corner. He could tell that they were crying while waiting for the others to emerge from the forest.

They never have given a satisfactory answer to what happened that day to Jaehwan. His friends haven't yet been found. There wasn't piece of clothing, hair or anything else to indicate that they're where he described it. Two months have passed and no sign of them. He thought it would be better if he went somewhere where he could get help about it. Due to the nightmares Jaehwan had been having and the outbursts of crying and fainting, they put him in a group home for treatment. The people who work there are very friendly and the facilities are very modern and comfortable. Jaehwan has a new therapist that he liked until that morning when he rolled up his shirt sleeves to start his session. In his arms were the faded remains of tattoos. Tattoos that he couldn't decipher and symbols that he had only seen once before.


	9. Meow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt: grave/'It's always been you.'

The house is old, an inheritance from his grandfather who filled it with memories in the form of books and many other objects. Hakyeon came to spend the whole summer in that place and it was there that he had his first crush. A boy his age who probably shouldn't live there anymore.

The strangest part of the house is not the house itself. It's the cemetery behind it. Old and unused, small and not at all scary. The flowers born among the headstones that had long since been named after those buried there, they were just five people.

There is a new headstone. Now there are six. Hakyeon recognizes the name on the headstone very well. Sadly, his first crush died. More strange is that it’s buried there from everywhere. Hakyeon compensates by placing flowers whenever he can. The first days that Hakyeon sleeps in it are peaceful: the sound of crickets and winds between trees, birds. It is on the sixth day that he realizes that he isn’t alone in this house.

He thought he was imagining the faint creak of floorboards in the dead of night and the inky shadow flitting silently across the room when he went to investigate, gone long before his fingers could found the light switch. But one day whatever it was made its presence clear.

He awoke to a clattering from the kitchen, the sound echoing through the silent house and sending a shivering shooting through his nerves. Hakyeon raced downstairs, heart hammering and as he approached the kitchen he heard the clicking of sharp claws scraping against the floor.

Whatever it vanished before he turned on the light, but all his utensils had been knocked off their hooks and strewn across the ground. Hakyeon cleared up the mess, still shaking from shock and went back to bed.

The next morning, he woke up early. There was the smell of coffee being brewed, and a presence in the kitchen. He wore white, had black hair and his movements seemed dedicated to each action. When Hakyeon came up with one of the irons used for the fireplace in hand, the presence disappeared leaving behind the barely finished coffee and a shattered mug on the floor.

The next morning there was a dead bird on his carpet. Eyes shut, beak open, wings splayed wide to reveal the bloody gash across its chest. His heart sunk. This was no playful, mischievous ghost. This was a warning.

He buried the bird in the garden and began researching how to appease an angry spirit. He burned herbs and wafted the smoke around his house then surrounded his bed with a circle of salt.

That night was quiet, and for a while, Hakyeon thought the problem had gone away. But then the bird returned, caked with dirt, inside his protective salt circle. Its open beak seemed to be laughing, mocking to the attempt to keep the evil at bay. This time Hakyeon didn’t bury it. he threw it in the bin and shut the lid.

He went to bed feeling like eyes were watching him from the shadows. When he finally slept he had an awful dream where he couldn’t breathe. Something was pressing on his chest, something dark and ominous and invisible in the blackness. Hakyeon was helpless, pinned, his ears filled with a rumbling growl that struck terror into his heart. He drifted in and out of sleep and Hakyeon wasn’t sure whether he was dreaming when he saw a pair of glowing eyes looking down at him.

Finally, the morning came. The comforting light of the rising sun washed away the terror of last night. Hakyeon relaxed, then chills spread across his body as he realized he could still hear the sound. It was still here.

He searched for the beast that had been terrorizing me tracking the sound to his wardrobe, the door slightly open. One way or another, this was going to end today. He held his breath and opened the door.

A fat black cat was curled, purring, atop a pile of clothes. It opened its eyes and let out a contented meow. He stared for a moment and burst out laughing. It all made sense now.

"It’s you," Hakyeon grunted holding the cat and staring - the judgmental. "It was always you."

Perhaps, he has overreacted. Perhaps... Until he saw some of the flowers he used to leave on the headstone and the smell of coffee that came from the kitchen as a sweet whisper filled the house with some music he heard only once, a long time ago.


	10. Tattoos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt: Tattoos/Stand up

"Stand up."

Wonsik's head was throbbing and his stomach was churning. He opened his eyes slowly and found himself lying on a bed that wasn’t his. He stood up, feeling like shit and trying to find bits of memory loss because of what seemed to be the worst hangover in his life. He remembers meeting his friends to eat and drink and then go to another place where he had this guy who found his tattoos incredibly attractive. They went out together... He said his name was Ken. And he was now staring at Wonsik and he didn't look much better than him.

"How are you?", Wonsik asked.

"I feel like shit," he said, walking over to the bed while the towel around his waist threatened to fall at any moment. "The last thing I remember is the tattoo parlour..."

Wonsik raised an eyebrow without understanding. "What? Tattoo parlour?"

Ken sighed and pointed to his arm where there was a new tattoo with a strange design: a series of symbols that combined with one of the tattoos that he already had there in a very beautiful way. “I tried to stop you from doing it, but you didn't listen to me. “

“I don't remember any of that. What does that mean?"

“At the bar, while we were drinking and talking about tattoos, this girl in the bar overheard us and decided to meddle in the conversation. She drew this on a napkin while handing us drinks and said it was a symbol that would go great with the tattoos you already has, in addition to giving you protection. Next thing I know, we stopped at a tattoo parlour where you did it.”

Wonsik looked at the symbol again. "Protection. I wonder if it works. ”

Ken looked at Wonsik and his expression seemed to have changed completely in a matter of seconds. The eyes were red with pupils very dark while the lips that Wonsik found very attractive now showed a row of sharp, deadly teeth. He wasn’t longer the face of someone who looked like the personification of a ray of sunshine, but of a creature out of his worst nightmares.

"You still alive, isn't it?"


	11. Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Soul/ There is must something we can do...

Hyuk died five years ago.

It was nothing tragic or unusual, just a car accident. Hyuk doesn't blame whoever drove the car and hit him. The driver was speeding because he needed to take a friend to the hospital who wasn’t feeling well. He lost control of the car and Hyuk lost his life.

It’s not his fault and Hyuk knows it. Such certainty it’s what doesn’t make him a cruel spirit and he’s definitely not in the mood for revenge either. If he could qualify himself, he would say he was just the opposite.

On the day of the funeral, somehow, his family couldn’t go and the few friends he had didn’t show up. The only people who came were a distant friend and the person who killed him with a few people related to them. Apparently, they all lived together, considered themselves a family even if they weren’t related by blood.

Hakyeon was the oldest. He was sweet and bright and extremely understanding. He was a light sleeper and slept very little and often woke up in the middle of the night after some dream where he always said something while sleeping.

Taekwoon was silent and very observant. And he was the first to realize that they weren’t alone in that house. It didn't take long to make a connection between the funeral and when Hyuk appeared. Then, one night Taekwoon was sleeping in the living room, Hyuk turned off the TV and watched the old man lying on the couch.

"You should go to sleep in the bed," he said to himself expecting to be not heard.

Taekwoon opened his eyes and noticed Hyuk there, but he wasn’t afraid, only surprised.

He told Hakyeon, Hongbin and the others about the soul that inhabited that house and they were curious about the situation.

"There is something we can do ..." Hakyeon said.

"As long as he doesn't spy while I shower or touch my apples ...", Hongbin said.

They started to burn candles made by Hakyeon on the anniversary of my death day. They left an empty chair for meals and holidays. Hyuk really felt like ... A member of the family.

Someone is trying to force the door.

A burglar. He's going to hurt the family. Hyuk’s family.

The thing about ghosts is that the more offerings they get, the stronger they become. Hyuk had been enjoying candles, trinkets, and even the occasional food offered for the past years. He was strong from that.

The knife feels warm in his hand. A shock of heat against the ice of his skin. Those five are his family. Hyuk cares about them. And they're not gonna join him yet.


End file.
